Paranormal Activity

A found-footage thriller in the vein of The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity follows engaged couple Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) as they become convinced that their home has been infested by a malicious presence – with the film subsequently detailing the pair’s ongoing efforts at documenting said presence by filming every aspect of their day-to-day lives. Though writer/director Oren Peli does a nice job of sustaining the authenticity of the characters and their situation through the movie’s progressively outlandish plot developments, the filmmaker’s inability to draw the viewer into the unabashedly spare storyline is exacerbated by an almost egregiously uneventful opening half hour – which consequently ensures that it becomes more and more difficult to work up any enthusiasm for the protagonists’ admittedly dire plight. It certainly doesn’t help that Katie and Micah are almost entirely lacking in attributes designed to earn the viewer’s sympathy (ie they’re both just bland), with the pervasive emphasis on the couple’s banal conversations effectively establishing a monotonous atmosphere that’s periodically (and thankfully) interrupted by the spirit’s spooky shenanigans. And while some of this stuff is undeniably quite creepy – ie Katie, seemingly possessed by the apparition, stands prone over Micah’s sleeping figure for several hours – there reaches a point at which the film’s relentlessly repetitive nature slowly-but-surely begins to dull the impact of its overtly scary moments. As a result, the impressively brutal (yet disappointingly conventional) climax isn’t nearly as stirring as one imagines it’s meant to be – which only cements Paranormal Activity‘s place as a sporadically intriguing horror effort that ultimately can’t quite live up to the promise of its setup.

** out of ****